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First Take: Ford misses chance to squelch Microsoft talk

Ford Motor's board of directors has been meeting, triggering the biggest spectator sport in the car business -- guessing whether they'll say or do anything about Ford CEO Alan Mulally's frequent mentions as

First Take: Ford misses chance to squelch Microsoft talk

Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally is a familiar figure at electronics shows, as this January 2011 appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where he delivered the CES keynote speech the third consecutive time.(Photo: Sam VarnHagen/Ford)

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Ford board passes up chance to clarify talk of CEO Mulally being courted by Microsoft

Ford Motor's board of directors meeting this week triggered widespread guessing whether the directors would say or do anything about Ford CEO Alan Mulally's frequent mentions as the next CEO for Microsoft.

The Microsoft talk is coming from reports that don't name sources, but it's being taken seriously enough to cause hand-wringing inside Ford and among outsiders.

On Oct. 1, at the 16th USA TODAY CEO Forum in Athens, Ga., Mulally said, "With respect to Microsoft, I love serving Ford, so I have nothing new to announce besides serving Ford."

That wasn't quite am absolute rejection of any Microsoft position, though. And in the same session, the Ford chief, perhaps unintentionally, tossed a little fuel on the rumor fire, recalling that, as a Boeing executive being courted by the automaker, "When (then-Ford CEO and current executive chairman) Bill Ford called, I knew I was having trouble, because I didn't say 'No' right away."

Too, the company has suggested that Mulally could leave early without hard feelings if he has a can't -resist offer. But he'd also leave a serious pile of cash behind for leaving before the end of next year.

"You can bet that there is much teeth-gnashing within that company and on the company's board if there is a persistent rumor that the chief exec is about to depart," says auto industry veteran Jack Nerad, executive editorial director and market analyst at Kelley Blue Book's kbb.com.

"I'm sure the board hates it that the rumor is out there. But he doesn't need to go public" with any further comment, says Rob Lachenauer, CEO and partner at executive consultants Banyan Family Business Advisors. If Mulally assures the board he's staying at Ford through 2014, as has been the plan for some time, that might be the end of it, Lachenauer says.

The usually troubling issue of succession isn't a big deal in this case. Last year the board approved a new COO position, No. 2 to Mulally, and appointed Mark Fields. He's been in charge of Ford's business in North and South America. Despite Bill Ford's caution at the time against reading too much into the move, outsiders have been assuming that Mulally's job is basically Fields' to lose.

Since the Microsoft rumors gained currency the past few weeks, Ford shares have edged down, to close Thursday 10/10 at $16.93, from $17.39 on Sept. 20. The 2.6% drop suggests "uncertainty from the investors' standpoint," Lachenauer says.

"On the inside, people want to know who their boss is. On the outside, current and potential investors want to know who is leading the company," Nerad says.

Moving to Microsoft headquarters in Washington would be returning to the area where Mulally spent most of his business life, working for airplane maker Boeing from 1969 until joining Ford in 2006.

And it would be another CEO job. One reason he left Boeing for Ford is because he wasn't in line for the Boeing CEO job.

Though a retirement–worthy 68, Mulally "is still energetic; he's not slipping," notes David Cole, lifetime observer of the auto business and chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research, who was inducted in to the Automotive Hall of Fame this year.

On the other hand, that age issue sticks in the craw when outsiders talk about a possible Mulally move to Microsoft.

"If he were 60, that'd be something else entirely," Cole says.

And although Mulally has proved that leadership is portable, Microsoft would be a culture shock. At both Boeing and Ford, Cole notes, Mulally was in "a complex manufacturing business, but the software world is very different."

"It would surprise the daylights out of me" if Mulally were to make the move, Cole says.